Mexico, 02/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner Pascal Lamy officially inaugurated, in Mexico, the Institute for Studies on European Integration, a joint project between the European Commission, the Mexican Ministry for External Relations, the Autonomous Technology Institute of Mexico (ITAM) and the autonomous University of Barcelona. Unique in Latin America, the EIEI aims to diffuse European ideas on integration, in a region where it is at the heart of political debates. High level European professors go there regularly. This year Paolo Cecchini and former European Commissioner Manuel Marin each gave one week of classes, while former EP President Nicole Fontaine and Pascal Lamy gave lectures there. The Institute also offers grants to Latin-American students wishing to specialise in European integration. The ambition of the Institute's joint directors, Jordi Bacaria from the autonomous University of Barcelona, and Stéphan Sberro from ITAM (former journalist of Agence EUROPE) is to one day transform the IEIE into an observatory for comparative regional integration and the evolution of political and economic relations between Latin America and the European Union.